S-12 Paddy art (Gyouta city on 12th,Sep.’21)
This route is in “Short trips". See Short trips map/ See Japan map
Paddy art in Gyota city is now famous. They make effort to create different art in each year and it has been certified by Guinness World Records. From my home, it’s 65km for one way trip, so good training for Sunday pastime, though the way to there was boring. It seems better to ride on the Arakawa(river) bank from Kitasenju station for around 90km(Pls refer to my S-13 article, Ara-kawa ride), if you start from Tokyo area.
To see the paddy art(pic.1), I should buy a ticket at \400- to climb the tower and make a queue. It was 50M long queue but I could get on the elevator in 20min. Honestly it’s not the place to visit many times, but was nice experience to see once. Pls note the rice to be reaped in early Oct at latest.
Every time I do cycling, I search a local good cuisine and Kazo area Udon(wheat flour noodle) was the one in this time. This area is an alluvial fan of Tone river, so the land is fertile enough for wheat harvesting. So traditionally people in this area harvest wheat and eat Udon usually.
I chose the restaurant Touchi Udon and ordered Hiyajiru Udon (\740- as of ’21) adding a tempura. It was very chewy taste and its dipping sauce made of green leave and sesame had good seasoning for hot body. It was before noon but my order for Hiyajiru Udon was the last one.
For returning, I took Edo river bank since it’s easy to go (pls refer to my S-3 Edo river cycling article).From Tokyo, it would be tough to make a round trip, so I recommend to take a JR train from Ageo station. It’s 45min from Ageo to Tokyo station.